What Went Wrong in Final Minute of Alabama's Loss to Tennessee

Nate Oats has not had a lot of success against Tennessee. The Volunteers are the only SEC team during his tenure at Alabama that he has a losing record against, but it looked like Oats and Alabama were going to flip the script in Knoxville on Saturday against Tennessee.

The No. 6 Crimson Tide led by as many as nine points in the second half and held a four-point lead with 30 seconds to go before No. 5 Tennessee won on Jahmai Mashack's buzzer beater, 79-76.

"I was not good for the last 30 seconds," Oats said after the game. "Feel like I failed these guys. For 39-and-a-half minutes, they out-played them, they were up four."

How exactly did it go from Alabama pulling out a gritty road win to blowing the lead and losing on a buzzer beater? Need to rewind the clock to a little earlier in the half.

Alabama held a lead for almost the entire second half, but then went on a long field-goal drought that lasted almost six minutes of game time as the Volunteers continued cutting into the deficit and getting the crowd back into the game. Tennessee took its first lead of the half with 4:06 to go on free throws from Jordan Gainey to go up 70-68.

Grant Nelson tied the game for Alabama on free throws, and then Mark Sears ended the drought with a 3-pointer that put the Tide up 73-70 with 2:05 left. Alabama's lead was up to four points with 36 seconds left at 76-72 after a free throw from Labaron Philon, seemingly giving the Crimson Tide a two-score lead.

This is when trouble began to arise for the Tide. Tennessee's Chaz Lanier made a layup on the other end and was fouled by Nelson, cutting the score to 76-74 with a free throw still to come and 30 seconds on the clock.

After the foul but before the free throw attempt, Oats subbed in Chris Youngblood and Mark Sears for Mouhamed Dioubate and Clifford Omoruyi to give Alabama more offensive prowess.

"Subbed our bigs out to get the rebound before I should’ve," Oats said. "I shouldn’t have subbed them out until after we secured the rebound, so that was on me...The worst-case scenario is that they make a free throw, and we still have the ball up one, and I should’ve left the guys in to make sure that we secured it before we got to the offensive end"

Lanier missed the free throw for Tennessee, but Jarin Stevenson fouled Mashack on the rebound, sending the Volunteers back to the free throw line. Mashack made both attempts, and just like that, Alabama's four-point lead evaporated without the offense even getting to touch the ball.

But at this point, there were just over 30 seconds left on the clock, so Alabama could hold for the final shot of regulation with a chance to win it on the road in a tie game at 76-76. Oats had all three second-half timeouts in his pocket, but elected not to use one to set up a play as the Tide brought the ball up the floor.

Alabama wasn't able to get a clean look at the basket, but Philon held up a jump ball with 3.8 seconds left. Oats then called a timeout and still had two left as Alabama would have to inbound from under its own rim.

Philon, the freshman guard, was the inbounder, and was called for a five-second violation, giving the ball back to Tennessee without Alabama getting a shot off.

"I had a chance to call timeout," Oats said. "Coaches can call timeouts on the underneath out of bounds play, and at four [seconds], I should’ve called it. Thought we were getting it in, and that’s on me."

Tennessee got the ball with 3.8 seconds left, but would have to travel the length of the court to attempt a game-winning shot. Mashack took it up the court and shot an uncontested 3 from a few steps past half court and sunk it through the bottom of the net for the 79-76 win.

JAHMAI MASHACK'S EPIC GAME-WINNER 🤩 @Vol_Hoops pic.twitter.com/aWrWsEHtpE
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) March 2, 2025

Alabama (23-6, 12-4) made plenty of mistakes throughout the game that led up to this moment, like 12 turnovers and nine missed free throws, but with how well the Tide played for the majority of the game against one of the best defensive teams in the country, a four-point lead that late in the game should not lead to a loss in that fashion.

Oats made sure to take the blame.

"We were still up four with 30 seconds to go and had too many coaching mistakes in the last 30 seconds."

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